Battle of Ciudad Universitaria

Battle of Ciudad Universitaria
Part of the Siege of Madrid of the Spanish Civil War
Date 15–23 November 1936 Location Ciudad Universitaria, Madrid, Spain Result Republican victory
Belligerents
Spanish Republic International Brigades Durruti Column	Nationalist Spain
Commanders and leaders
Brig. Gen. José Miaja Menant Lt. Col. Vicente Rojo Lt. Col. Carlos Romero Giménez Lt. Col. Jesús Martínez de Aragón Emilio Kléber Paul Lukács José B. Durruti (PKIA)	Div. Gen. Francisco Franco Lt. Col. Carlos Asensio Cabanillas Lt. Col. Francisco Delgado  (WIA) Lt. Col. Mohamed Meziane  (WIA)
Strength
Central Army • 11,000 International Brigades • 1,800 Durruti Column • 1,400 militiamen	Army of Africa • 3,000 regulares • 18 light tanks
Casualties and losses
high	high

The Battle of Ciudad Universitaria was a belligerent confrontation at the start of the defense of Madrid in the Spanish Civil War. This battle happened in the new campus area of the Ciudad Universitaria from the 15 to the 23 of November 1936 (approximately a week) leaving a stable front until the end of the war. The republican militias' objective was "the defense of the capital at all costs", and for that, it was necessary to stop the advance of general Valera's troops and the fall of Madrid. On the other side, the attackers had as an objective to "conquer the city" as fast as possible. The persistence and tenacity of both sides in the battle meant an inflection point on the Spanish Civil War, partly because it was the first time that Franco's troops were stopped. The campus was also one of the most long-lasting confrontation points during the Spanish Civil War. The resistance shown in Madrid raised the morality of other fronts amongst the Gobierno de la República's controlled zone. The end of the battling period on the 23 of November 1936 was because of a change in strategy on part of the attackers. Between the main characteristics of this confrontation, it is worth mentioning the entrance to battle, for the first time in this war, of the varied troops that belonged to the International Brigades, just like the heavy military material of Soviet origins. The attackers received material and troops from Germany and Italy, being also one of the first times in history in which aerial bombing against the civil population was used.

On the 8 of November 1936, general Valera's militarily planned frontal assault started with an initial approach to the Casa de Campo. This attack moved the focal point of the attack to the northeast to occupy the zone between Ciudad Universitaria and Plaza de España. This first frontal attack was very bloody on both sides and made a slow advance amongst the troops that directed the main axis of effort through la Casa de Campo to a stream of the river Manzanares. In this stream, the attackers saw the necessity of advancing through the bridges that were held by the militia troops. After various failed attempts to cross the Manzanares, they get to the other side through the space between two bridges. The battle of Ciudad Universitaria starts on the 15 of November spreading the conflict all throughout the campus. The fierce violence for occupying the city and the determination to stop the advance maintains itself on both sides. Both sides start running out of tactics as the death count goes up and the battle carries out between the faculties and diverse buildings of the campus. This confrontation is characterized by the fight inside the buildings, room by room, floor by floor. After a whole week of intense fighting and slow advance, general Franco has a reunion on the Cuartel General de Leganés, and on the 23 of November, the attackers' strategy changes: they would indirectly attack Madrid with a maneuver on the axis Las Rozas-Húmera (nowadays a neighborhood in Pozuelo de Alarcón) less than 2 kilometers northeast to the campus, which gave way to other battles like the Jarama (February 1937) and later the Guadalajara (March 1937). The Campus' front was in a wedge form, whose corner was the Clínico, maintaining its lines practically the same during the rest of the Civil War. Even if the front stayed the same, there was a fierce battle in the Ciudad Universitaria and Parque del Oeste with mines and countermines, all with unsuccessful infantry offensives until on the 28 of March 1939 the colonel Segismundo Casado surrendered the city to the attacking troops.

After the dispute, the campus of the Ciudad Universitaria and the adjacent parts of the city was left very damaged. Ironically, the buildings were not used for the first time as a university, but as a war front. It was not until some years later that it was possible to recover normal docent activities in some faculties. The state in which the campus was left made the idea of a thematic park of the Civil War be established there, but the idea led to nothing in the end. The war caught the University in the middle of a changing state since many of the faculties that were in the urban center were going to rejoin slowly in the newly built campus. The war came unexpectedly and they were used in combats instead of studying places. The reconstruction of the faculties led that on the 12 of October 1943 the new precinct was inaugurated, starting the academic year. There were also built monuments dedicated to the commemoration of the victory of Franco's army, for example, the Arco de la Victoria built from 1950 to 1956 or the Monumento a Los Caídos Por España (nowadays the headquarters of the Junta Municipal del Distrito de Moncloa-Aravaca). The scars that the battle left have been hidden by the reconstruction of the faculties, the reconstruction of the surroundings Moncloa-Aravaca and the consequences of the urbanistic expansion of the '70s, just as remodeling projects like the burying of the M-30 and the creation of parks at the shore of the Manzanares like Madrid Río.

The setting

The Manzanares was a natural battlefront (nowadays it is called Madrid Río), its bridged were a military objective of high value for both sides.

The Ciudad Universitaria is an urban space nearby Moncloa. Its original concept was of a social and architectonic place, an initiative of King Alfonso XIII at the beginning of the XX century. This project's goal was to give Madrid a condensed area with all the faculties, 9 investigating labs, and a student dormitory. It was also a way to amplify the Alcalá de Henares' offer. It was finally decided to establish the Ciudad Universitaria in the state property terrain called La Moncloa. The construction starts and the company in charge will be Agromán. The faculties of Medicine, Pharmacy, and Odontology start on the 6 of November 1930. The Hospital Clínico starts to get built on 1932 until the Civil War stops the construction of this and other buildings in the terrain. The inauguration plans and start of the school year were scheduled initially for the ending months of 1936, but the social revolts and constant labor problems delayed the construction and the inauguration.

La Ciudad Universitaria

Main article: Ciudad Universitaria (Madrid)

In the month of August of 1936, due to the rumors of advancing belligerent troops towards Madrid, the docent activities had been suspended in wait of "new events". There was still some administrative activity, although very limited due to the instability of the situation. There are lists of the professors that have been put aside in August, just as new books destined for the library begin to arrive. The professors and the workers in the Universidad Central move to Valencia in November. Until on the 5 of November, suspicions that this will be the setting for the attack on Madrid do not arise. The military cartography used by both sides to describe the operation theatre corresponds to the Hoja 559 IV (Cuadrante 5E) del Plano Director de Pozuelo de Alarcón elaborated in the Talleres del Ministerio de la Guerra of August 1937.

Although the campus was still on construction when the armed conflict started, it had plenty of buildings with part of the facilities almost operative. Since the beginning of November, the area becomes a prolonged battlefield and many of its buildings are seriously damaged in the clamor of the battle, being the philosophy and letters faculty the most affected. The testimonies of the destruction were gathered from brigade members that fought in the battle like John Sommerfield, Dan Kurzman, Bernard Knox and writers like Marta Torres Santo Domingo. Three-quarters of the university was occupied by the revolting army on the 23 of November. During the rest of the conflict many trenches, gun nests, refuges of all types, and bunkers were built all throughout the area of the campus, even though the front suffered almost no changes. It was the mine war the final ending that modified completely the orography of the zone.

Starting on the banks of the Manzanares, the buildings of the Ciudad Universitaria were scattered in a slight uphill slope. The battle took place with the defending army at a higher altitude than the attackers at all times. There were a few buildings in the area, despite only having been built four faculties (Medicine, Pharmacy, Science and Philosophy) and the Architecture, Veterinary and Agrarian Engineers. Over the Parque del Oeste there was the National Sanity Institute, the Veterinary School, the Antirrabies Department, and the Fundación del Amo (a student's residence for USA students with a capacity of 100 students) and the Student's Residency. In a more northern position, there was the Palacete de la Moncloa and the Monumento a Los Héroes de las Campañas Coloniales (disappeared nowadays). In the back, there is a group of buildings with the Hospital Clínico being the most notable from them. Behind it, there was Madrid's urban area. In 1936, Madrid's urban zone from around this area was an uninterrupted series of solars. Thanks to the operations of the combat engineers colonel Tomás Ardiz Rey in collaboration with Carlos Masquelet, the Casa de Campo, the Moncloa zone and the Ciudad Universitaria became stronger.

The Casa de Campo and Manzanares' bridges

The Casa de Campo was completely enclosed by a wall of Toledan wall covering its exterior. Its outline was created by Francesco Sabatini and it was the model of the private park for the royal pleasure that it had been used for until 1931. There were around ten entries all along the wall, the only two that were close by were the river and the angel ones. Between the Casa de Campo and the Ciudad Universitaria, there was the Manzanares' river bed, which in 1936 had abundant vegetation proceeding from the Pardo mountain. The Manzanares' was channeled from the Toledo bridge to the Franceses bridge, that meaning that from the Franceses' until San Fernando's bridge was not channeled. The channeled zone was heavily defended, was very dangerous for the attacking's infantry advance, and made the passing of the tanks difficult. It was because of these reasons that the channeled zone was avoided, advancing a few meters up from the Franceses' bridge, where it resulted relatively easier to make an advance. This configuration of the unchanneled river was what directed the combat definitively towards the Ciudad Universitaria on the 15th November 1936. The Manzanares' river, which had a small river flow in summer, on the contrary, is on its highest influence during autumn.

On the Manzanares' two banks there were two wide roads. The one on the right bank was the road to Castilla, the one on the left bank lowers through the Parque del Oeste and continues until the Puerta de Hierro and formed part of the National Circuit of Firmes Especiales. The two banks are connected by various bridges of important strategic valor. The three bridges closer to Ciudad Universitaria are the San Fernando (the road to A Coruña), the Nuevo bridge (for railway use) and in parallel, just a few meters away, the Franceses (roadway to Irún). The rest of the bridges were immersed in the center of dispersed populations that still were part of Madrid. There were also a few footbridges all along the river. Some protagonist bridges in the battle were made viaducts to save the slope of the roads and the roadway systems. For example, the viaduct of the Quince Ojos that supported the road to La Coruña (surpassing the slope of the Cantalasranas stream), just like the Aire bridge.

The battle took place in the first months of the Civil War in the University City of Madrid, the new campus of Madrid's Complutense University. It lasted for about a week, between 15 and 23 November 1936, following which the front stabilized until the end of the war. The aim of the Republican militias was the defence of the capital at any price, to achieve which they needed to stop the progress of the columns at the command of General José Varela and avoid the fall of Madrid into rebel hands.

The aim of the attacking armies of the military rebellion on the other hand was to "take the city" within the shortest possible period of time. This battle signaled the beginning of a new phase in the Spanish Civil war, for until then the Francoist troops had been advancing relatively unopposed across Spain, conquering large swathes of territory in a few months. But here, at the Ciudad Universitaria, for the first time, they encountered fierce and relentless opposition.

See also

• List of Spanish Republican military equipment of the Spanish Civil War
• List of Spanish Nationalist military equipment of the Spanish Civil War